Benedetta Burston brings together research experience in cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and public sector innovation to explore a central question: how can cities use AI responsibly and in ways that create real public value?

Her PhD research at TalTech’s Academy of Architecture and Urban Studies and working with the FinEst Centre focuses on responsible AI governance for cities, looking beyond the technology itself to the accountability, rules, institutions, partnerships, and public trust needed to make AI work in practice. At the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities, she is particularly interested in connecting this research with real urban challenges and helping promising ideas move from pilots towards lasting impact.

In this article Benedetta shares her journey, continue reading!

What are your main research topics and what draws you to these topics?

My PhD is on responsible AI governance for cities, and there’s one puzzle I keep coming back to. You find organisations that invest in genuinely impressive technology and still get very little out of it, and when you look closer, the problem is rarely the technology itself. It’s about accountability, about rules written in separate rooms that don’t fit together, about trust, about ex-ante strategic and holistic thinking.

What excites me most is how the shift from government to governance plays out once AI enters the picture, because a city (and likewise, any public administration level) can’t govern this alone. It needs the calibration of the right institutions, stakeholders, rules and partnerships to use technology wisely, and a lot of the old playbook simply stops holding. I’m interested in the whole journey a responsible AI solution goes through, from the way it’s designed, to how it’s procured, to how it’s co-created with the people who’ll actually use it, because responsibility isn’t something you bolt on at the end, or embed at the beginning and stop cultivating.

What do you like to do outside work and research?

Outside work I’m an old movies enthusiast and I read a lot of non-fiction. I’m a big music person too. I’ll happily admit to being a devoted Swiftie, to the point where I always find a way to sneak Taylor Swift lyrics into my academic and professional writing. My go-to Saturday is karaoke, which I say with total confidence and absolutely no vocal ability to back it up. I’m also really into comedy, and SNL is my favourite show of all time. And I love experimenting in the kitchen, even though I’m probably the worst cook you’ll ever meet. At this point I’ve basically made it a personal mission to disprove the idea that all Italians can cook.